STELLARIS - YouTuber Wars Case Study

What do you get when you throw 6 YouTubers into a hardcore grand strategy game that they’ve never played, with people they’ve never met, and they’re being sabotaged by a veteran player…? Alliances, Betrayals, Destroyed Fleets, and... Xenophobic Penguins?!

Stellaris, is an epic space exploration game full of diplomacy and war - but Maverick were presented with a problem; the perception of being a niche game that looks difficult to learn for newcomers, sometimes even intimidating strategy gamers. Our aim: challenge that perception, show how fun/rewarding Stellaris actually is, and appeal to both a new audience and the lapsed players.

No problem right..?

Our creative strategy involved focussing on the base game, rather than the DLCs and expansions - creating a multi-cam series of episodes and influencer-specific assets. We researched and selected relevant influencers based on: their personal audiences, the types of games they play on their channels, and most importantly they had to be new to Stellaris (amongst other filters, but we can’t give away all of our secrets)!

In this way, the audience could follow alongside these noob players and learn the ropes with them - it’s reality TV meets space exploration let’s play - it was a big and ambitious campaign!

We enlisted Stellaris expert Matt Hoving (A_Spec) to bring credibility to the series with the game’s core community, knowledge for the new players, and fun in-jokes even for the lapsed players. Be honest, who actually spotted the Blorg?

With our approach we were able to separate slower gameplay with different entertaining storylines, with simple creative episode structures using specific goals, giving every type of audience something to relate to and goals to reach towards.

This campaign showed off the features of the game in a fun and lighthearted context, making the game easier to understand and wholly digestible.

We’re not just Maverick by name. If you’d like to discuss potentially working on a similar campaign for your game or would like advice on the best approach for you, then please don’t hesitate to get in contact at shanzay@maverickmedia.co.uk.